1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to an ink-jet recording apparatus, such as a printer, facsimile, or the like of an ink-jet system, and method for controlling the ink-jet recording apparatus. In particular, the present invention pertains to the management technology for waste ink generated by a printing head.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, in an ink-jet recording apparatus, such as an ink-jet printer, waste ink that is not used in printing is generated by a head cleaning operation performed to prevent clogging of an ink-jet printing head or to remove foreign substances adhered around a nozzle of the ink-jet printing head.
Against such a background, the art of installing a waste ink tank for storing the waste ink in an ink-jet printer is disclosed in the Japanese Patent Laid Open Publication (Kokai) No. H11-268303 and No. H11-334110. Further, the art of an ink-jet printer having an absorbent for absorbing waste ink is disclosed in the Japanese Patent Laid Open Publication (Kokai) No. H06-210875. Furthermore, the art of an ink cartridge having the ink tank with the addition of a waste ink absorption function is disclosed in the Japanese Patent Laid Open Publication (Kokai) No. H11-157098 and No. 2000-141703.
However, in the case of the waste ink collection unit, such as the waste ink tank, the waste ink absorbent, or the waste ink absorption function, being installed in the ink-jet printer, besides exchanging the ink tank of the ink for printing, when the waste ink collection unit is full of the waste ink, exchange of the waste ink collection unit must also be performed, and therefore maintenance of the ink-j et printer becomes very cumbersome. Furthermore, if a quantity of waste ink more than or equal to a predetermined quantity is produced, all the waste ink may not be able to be collected in the waste ink collection unit, and therefore waste ink could overflow from the waste ink collection unit.
Moreover, in the case of collecting waste ink to the waste ink tank whenever waste ink occurs, detection of space availability in the waste ink tank and control of the discharge of the waste ink becomes complicated. For example, in the case of an ink cartridge in which each of the colors of Cyan (C), Magenta (M), Yellow (Y), and blacK (K) are united and combined in a single waste ink tank, since what is necessary is just to manage the capacity of the single waste ink tank, the discharge control for preventing the overflow of the waste ink is relatively easy. However, in the case of an ink cartridge having independent ink tanks for each ink color and waste ink tanks provided to each of the ink tanks respectively, since it would be necessary to discriminate between each waste ink tank, managing the available capacity of each waste ink tank, the discharge control of the waste ink becomes complicated.